Samruddhi Expressway: Nearly 1k vehicles denied entry between Apr 1-Jun 30 due to their worn out tyres

Mumbai: Nearly 1,000 vehicles were denied entry to the Samruddhi Expressway over worn out tyres between April 1 and June 30 this year, an official said.

The expressway, operational on a 601 kilometre stretch from Nagpur to Nashik, was the site of a horrific bus accident on Saturday in which 25 persons were charred to death.

As per the action taken data shared by Maharashtra’s Road Safety Cell, teams of eight RTO offices counselled 21,053 motorists and prohibited entry to 973 vehicles for worn out tyres on Samruddhi Expressway since April 1 this year.

”The teams were from Amravati, Aurangabad, Washim, Buldhana, Jalna, Shrirampur and Nashik RTOs. A total of 234 motorists were caught for speeding, including 77 through a computerised mechanism installed on the route, which has a design speed of 150 kmph and limit of 120 kmph,” an official said.

Bharat Kalaskar, deputy commissioner (road safety) said action was taken using RTO interceptor vehicles as well as the computerised system, adding that worn out tyres were checked at entry points and action for violations were taken at the exits.

”Speed detection is done by computers and so these vehicles are automatically blocked and stopped on toll plazas. Some vehicles were detected by interceptor vehicles and then stopped at toll plazas by inspectors,” Kalaskar explained.

Speeding is one of the major causes of accidents on the route but data suggests RTO teams have focused more on other violations like no parking and lane cutting.

A total of 3169 motorists faced action for ‘no parking’ violations, 2204 for ‘lane cutting’ and 1043 for not having reflective tapes that make the vehicle visible to other motorists at night, as per official data.